conlangfandomcom-20200223-history
Toúījāb Kīkxot
Setting Phonology Vowels Consonant Phonotactics Syllables Sandhi/Assimilation Patterns Basic grammar Toúījāb Kīkxot is an agglutinative, symmetrical-voice language. It has a (mostly regular) trilateral root system, and most derivation of verbs, nouns and adjectives occurs through transfixation and reduplication. Roots are classified into 1 of 4 classes more or less based on animacy of the idea. They are Human (I), Animate (II), Inanimate (III), and Abstract (IV). There are ~16 derivational patterns, (usually) with different transfixes for each class. In most cases, inflections are marked with prefixes and suffixes. Nouns Gender Possession Number Pronouns There are four sets of human pronouns (Honorific, Neutral, Familiar and Inferior/Pejorative) and a wide variety of 3rd person non-human pronouns. Verbs Voice Applicative Suffixes Aspect Mood Adjectives Gender Comparison Adverbs Derivational Morphology With some more advanced forms of inflectional morphology thrown in Nouns Patterns Reduplication Compounding Verbs Patterns Reduplication Compounding Adjectives Patterns Reduplication Compounding Syntax Orthography While a latin based transcription is used in the text, natively Toúījāb Kīkxot is written in a logographic system with heavy syllabic elements. Dictionary Example Text The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Toúījāb Kīkxot: Khōhim úīkmo1 vit akhxōm qal cōroj2 dumlūzō ūmpa lipha tāsah ī cāyap3 vit fnoxi4. Cānu mamaxīrosasā5 mocīph6 ī ahrōsh 7 ūmpa ziūsiwk8 olúīg-alúag zāraz dūchhawāx. IPA: wiːkŋɔ ʕɪt ək'ʃoːm q'əl tsoːrɔdz dʊmluːtʃoː uːmpə lɪp'ə tɑːsəʔ iː tsɑːjəp ʕɪt ħnɔʃɪ. Tsɑːnʊ məməʃiːrɔsəsɑː mɔtsiːp' iː əʔroːs' uːmpə tʃjuːsɪɹk ɔlwiːg-əlwəg tʃɑːrətʃ duːts'əɹɑːʃ Translators notes 1 The word literally means "human, person, mankind", but has a connotation of "civilizied people" (that is, only their civilization). Using "úīkmo" instead of "vīggo" (human, tribe, people, mankind, barbarian etc) reflects their values that they are superior and have greater rights compared to everyone else. 2 Úīkmo Kīkxot find the idea of people being born "free" strange. Instead the phrase "enter the world" is used. Means the same thing, but fits their sensibility better, since the verb born usually has reference to a mother, but there is none here. 3 Literally means "entitlement". Úīkmo Kīkxot don't have the same views as us regarding rights. People can feel that they deserve something, but those are based on merit, wealth and caste, not ideals. 4 Means the same, equal or even balanced. While this construction is perfectly acceptable, xenophobic Úīkmo Kīkxot would probably interpret this to mean that each person's rights (entitlements) are equal or in accordance with their individual dignity (honor, standing) and not that all people have the same rights and dignity. 5 The habitual/frequentive/gnomic aspect is used to emphasize that people are always given the following things. Takes a locative applicative suffix to show that the subject is the recipient, not the patient. While no agent is specified, the ditransitive is still used and people can understand from context that the following nouns are patients, not agents. 6 Literally means "mind, place of thoughts" but can mean reason too 7 Literally means "doing righteous acts" but like many verbal nouns, has a more abstract meaning of "knowing what is right" or conscience 8 Means "must" but uses the imperative prefix to soften it to "should". This shows that pragmatically the imperative prefix makes orders more polite and in the case of an imperative verb, still makes it more polite